Tshwane DA governance an accident of history: Tshwane ANC

The Democratic Alliance in Tshwane has come under fire from African National Congress (ANC) regional chair Dr Kgosi Maepa.

He says the City of Tshwane metro is in shambles and they have put the blame at the door of executive mayor Solly Msimanga.

Speaking on POWER Perspective with Onkgopotse JJ Tabane, Maepa says there are too many scandals inside the metro that the mayor knew about.

“Evidence at our disposal puts the mayor at the centre of the scandal. From the issue of Marietha Aucamp, to the issue of Stephen de Villiers, to the now scandalous EPMU, the ANC can say without confusion that the executive mayor knows everything.

“We have documented evidence from the city manager that the mayor was aware and participated in the selection of all these appointments,” says Maepa.

He accused Aucamp and member of mayoral committee for human capital management and shared services Cilliers Brink of being the de-facto city manager and mayor respectively.

Maepa says the metro started being in a mess when the DA-coalition government took over in August 2016.

He says Msimanga is out of his depth and needs training on thought leadership.

“The wheels came off a long time ago. The wheels came off when the DA took over [governance], they didn’t know where to start. The DA did not know what to do. The situation we are in today is a result of Solly Msimanga not knowing what to do and just drowning. They were an accident of history really,” he says.

He says Msimanga cannot pretend to not know about the GladAfrica tender contract, which is a tender granted to engineering consultants GladAfrica to manage the city’s entire infrastructure budget worth up to R12bn over a three-year period.

The Tshwane city council has suspended city manager Dr Moeketsi Mosola over the tender contract.

The ANC alleges both Msimanga and Mosola were involved in the irregular GladAfrica tender.

Speaking on POWER Drive on Thursday, Maepa pleaded with political parties represented in city council to work together to oust Msimanga by voting with their conscience during the planned vote of no confidence scheduled for 30 August.